What Does God Want From Me? (Phase One)

Lately I have been reading a wonderful book by James Bryan Smith entitled,"The Good And Beautiful God". It is part of a three book series on spiritual formation. In the book he states that, "Our thinking about life with God inevitably confronts us with this crucial question: What does God want from me?"

I bet that if we polled 100 people and asked them that question, I bet we would get a broad range of answers. But I think that there would be a thought that would be consistent in all of the answers. James Bryan Smith says,"If you ask the average person, What must you do to get God to like, favor and bless you? the answer would be clear and consistent: Well, I think I would have to go to church, read my Bible, give some money, serve on committees and serve the needy. Oh, and God does not want me to sin-or at least keep it at a minimum."

It sounds reasonable doesn't it? In fact, all of the things mentioned are good things to do. I think the answer if I were to try to simplify it has two phases. What is mentioned above is phase two. What we do is we try to do phase two without phase one. Have you ever had to assemble something? Well then you know the frustration when you try to put something together without reading the directions and it doesn't turn out right. You try and try to make it work, but it doesn't. To you, it just makes sense that you would put it together the way you did. But, after all the frustration, you finally go back and read the directions and you notice you missed a step.

Before we look at phase one let me just say something about sin. God isn't a kill joy. God isn't out to make our lives unenjoyable. God doesn't want us to sin because it harms us. He is actually looking out for us. If you were honest enough to examine your life, you would admit that not much good comes out of sinning.

When we try to live our lives for Jesus, if we focus on phase two without phase one we will get frustrated just as in the example of assembling something. So what is phase one? To know Him and love Him.

The Westminister Larger Catechism, written in 1648, opens with a question and an answer:
Question: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.

What I love about that statement is to fully enjoy God forever. Most of us don't think of fully enjoying God. If we aren't in love with God and fully enjoying Him then how can we enjoy church, the Bible, serving others, etc...? You see, it's the classic example of phase two without phase one. You will feel obligated to do phase two instead of, desiring to do phase two. I remember not enjoying going to High School. I would skip school very often. But every now and then there would be a class or a teacher that I enjoyed very much. Guess what? Because I enjoyed that class I couldn't wait to get to that class. In your spiritual life, if you try to do phase two without phase one, usually you will get frustrated, then you will stop trying, or think there is nothing to God.

Now if we stop trying to do the things that we think that God wants us to do this leads us to believe- that God is mad at us. We believe He's mad because we aren't doing what we know we should do. Then what can happen is that we try again, except this time we do it out of guilt. Guess what? Having guilt as a motivator never leads to lasting change. So after we try the guilt route, we get frustrated again and quit again. Which leads us to think that God is mad at us again.You can imagine what this thought process leads to: Whenever something doesn't go good in our lives we think God is punishing us.

What if God isn't mad at you? What if He loves us irregardless of our religious performance? Wouldn't this lead to "delighting" in Him? If God loves me regardless of my performance, then my response is to love Him.

His love for me first led me to love Him. That then led me to want to do phase two.To quote James Bryan Smith again," The narrative that God loves us and longs for us to love Him in return provides a genuine and lasting incentive to change."

1 John 4:10-11 are two verses that bring this thought out:

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The Message which is a paraphrase of the Bible puts it like this:

10 This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. 11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.

You see, our love for God does not determine His love for us. God loves us first. In fact Jesus went to the cross and was willing to die for us before we loved Him.

7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man ; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
                                           Romans 5:7-8

This verse from Romans shows us again God not only loving us first, but being willing to die for us before we were "cleaned up" and loving Him.

That type of love is what leads us to loving Him. That is phase one. This will eventually lead to a desire to do phase two (go to church, read the Bible, etc...).

I'll close with another quote from James Bryan Smith,"The primary thing God wants from us is not improved moral behavior (which will come), but to love God because He first loves us.

Troy

Graceland Church-Why the name Graceland?

 One of the challenges of having a new church, is thinking of a name. Names can define, or categorize you. I have always been amazed by the grace of God. I have experienced so much of His grace in my life. I want for others to experience His grace. I also have desired for people to experience the grace of God through other people. I know I have been blessed by so many other people. Grace can be hard to explain, but you know when you are experiencing it.

So I had a few different names in mind. But as I talked with people about how I thought God was building this part of His body (Church). Others thought that Graceland was the best description. The challenge? Most people think of Elvis. Surprisingly younger people didn't automatically think of Elvis.

Well since Elvis is the pink elephant(no offense to Elvis or any of his fans) I thought that we could try to find fun ways to incorporate Elvis at various times. Any suggestions?
              
Below is just a little explanation that will be on our website.

Troy



Why the name Graceland?
We did not set out to call our church by a name that is very familiar
to most people. But after putting some thought into what we desire for
people to experience at church and in life, the name makes perfect
sense.


Sadly, some people have not experienced grace when they have gone to
church or even when they have encountered people who call themselves
Christians. Though we admit we are from perfect, Graceland church
believes we should extend to others the same grace that God has
extended to us. We think church should be a "land of grace".
At Graceland church it is ok to:
Not have all the answers to life.
To be broken.
To have a past that you are not proud of.
Why is this ok? Because often these are the pathways to recognizing
God's grace and extending it to others.


So come and experience Graceland Church. Don't worry about having to
have your act together. God takes us the way we are.
Though we can't guarantee that you will see Elvis, we believe you will
experience Jesus and a group of people who have not only experienced
His grace, but who are also growing in His grace.

Graceland Church-Who We Are

For about the past two years I have been praying about starting a new church in the Quad Cities. Last summer I felt led to begin the process. Well as 2011 begins the plan is to have the first gathering Sunday April 10th, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. We are in talks right now with the Great Escape Theaters in Moline to see about renting their theater.

One of my reasons for wanting to start a new church is because I have found a lot of people who have been discouraged by what they have experienced at church, and on the other hand I have met people who feel they are not good enough for church. So the idea was that if I could be used to help people encounter God's grace they could get beyond their discouragement or their feelings of inadequacy. We desire to be a place of love, acceptance, grace and community.

So my desire was to have a church that would be a land of grace. A place where no matter where you are in life, and no matter what you have done, you will be reminded that God still loves you and has a plan for you. My desire has been to have a church where people are accepted the way they are. A place where people are free to investigate the claims of Jesus without being looked down upon. A church for people who don't necessarily attend church. A place for people who want Jesus, but not the "church culture" that has nothing to do with living for Jesus, that some well meaning people try to impose on us.

So I will keep you updated as to the progress of Graceland Church. We are in the middle of putting the website together. Below is just a short description about who we are. Below that you will find a link to a two minute video description about the type of church we want to be.

If you are interested in helping out in some way once or twice a month let me know. You can email me or inbox me. Remember NO RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED!!! troy.rangel@mchsi.com

We are excited about getting this church going and look forward to serving the Quad Cities.

Graceland Church was started to reach out to two groups of people - people who don’t attend church and people who go to church but have grown tired of “church as usual.”
We have found that some think church is boring, intimidating and even irrelevant to their lives.  In an attempt to combat this, Graceland Church uses biblical teaching and messages that deal with everyday challenges, hopes and heartbreaks.  We communicate these messages in ways that people are familiar with - music, movies, drama and media.
Maybe you’ve never attended church or maybe you’re just tired of church.  Maybe you’re on top of the world or maybe you’re completely broken.  Whatever your circumstance and no matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, you matter to God and you will experience His grace and love here at Graceland Church.

http://media.preachingtoday.com/mini-movies/8784/Welcome-To-Our-Church

Troy